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Apple TV likely to be upgraded soon?

A

Adgeman

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 22, 2005
62
0
I just got a 40GB Apple Tv for my birthday today. I'm happy with the gift but given the proximity of Macworld in Jan I'm wondering if I'm better off returning it for a refund and then seeing what is announced in early Jan.

I've not heard any rumours; anyone else able to offer advice?
 
If you can get a 100 percent refund, it wouldn't be a bad option. The last two Macworlds have had an Apple TV release, so it wouldn't shock me for another one. The fact that it goes a year without any hardware updates or price reductions is kind of annoying since we all know how hard drive prices can drop.

If I had the ear of Steve Jobs, I'd tell him to put a DVD drive in it, allow for 3.5" hard drives, allow external USB drives, and put a decent GD remote with it. Whenever they get on the Blu-ray bandwagon, have a Blu-ray option. Allow Netflix streaming.

Unfortunately, here's what I see happening: Same design, maybe a 60GB hard drive, HD movies for purchase (at $25 each). After spending a year figuring out that people aren't going to pay that much for HD downloads that are inferior to Blu-ray, they'll start putting BD drives on computers about 2 years later than everybody else.

Either that or Jobs will go completely bananas and do away with optical drives on EVERY computer and make you download EVERYTHING from iTunes or Apple.com. If you think that's farfetched, gaze at the MacBook Air.
 
They are more likely to update the Apple TV with a software release like they did last year: AppleTV Take 2

I'm hoping that Take 3 will be great but nevertheless I'm happy with Plex:D

No more agonizing about re-encoding all those .avi or .mkv for AppleTV, YEAH:D
 
Michael CM1 said:
If you can get a 100 percent refund, it wouldn't be a bad option. The last two Macworlds have had an Apple TV release, so it wouldn't shock me for another one. The fact that it goes a year without any hardware updates or price reductions is kind of annoying since we all know how hard drive prices can drop.

If I had the ear of Steve Jobs, I'd tell him to put a DVD drive in it, allow for 3.5" hard drives, allow external USB drives, and put a decent GD remote with it. Whenever they get on the Blu-ray bandwagon, have a Blu-ray option. Allow Netflix streaming.

Unfortunately, here's what I see happening: Same design, maybe a 60GB hard drive, HD movies for purchase (at $25 each). After spending a year figuring out that people aren't going to pay that much for HD downloads that are inferior to Blu-ray, they'll start putting BD drives on computers about 2 years later than everybody else.

Either that or Jobs will go completely bananas and do away with optical drives on EVERY computer and make you download EVERYTHING from iTunes or Apple.com. If you think that's farfetched, gaze at the MacBook Air.
Click to expand...

There is no way they are going to add the drives.
Also, from what I see on this board (presuming this is a more tech savvy audience then the average, then this applies even more), amazingly many people don't see much advantage of HD vs. SD rather than thinking AppleTV isn't up to blu-ray standards. I cannot imagine this, but it is true.

Apple will not develop the AppleTV in ways that are designed to appeal to the pirate crowd. I personally like the direction it has gone... I just want more and more HD content. I consider the AppleTV to play a nice role in a media center, but not intended to replace Blu-Ray player or DVR's, etc.
 
I can't see them making any real advances in the ATV world in Jan. Adding an optical drive will only drive the price up on a product that doesn't seem to popular in the Macworld already. Yes some people love them, and Yes some people hate them and would rather invest in a Mini. I think were starting to get away from what ATV was designed to do. Stream music, movies, podcasts, ect from your iTunes library to your TV.

I forsee just a software update.....and maybe a slight casing adjustment.
 
Adgeman said:
I just got a 40GB Apple Tv for my birthday today. I'm happy with the gift but given the proximity of Macworld in Jan I'm wondering if I'm better off returning it for a refund and then seeing what is announced in early Jan.

I've not heard any rumours; anyone else able to offer advice?
Click to expand...

I kinda agree with dbwie, enjoy your present, I don't expect a hardware change on the aTV at all. And if they do, sell your present and buy the new one. No probs. Apple products are nearly always high in course.

I'm hoping the're going to put more codex possibilities on it so I don't have to convert everthing, and being able to store videos and not just sync would be nice too.
Steve seems to have some issues with the aTV, I have the feeling it doesn't fit into his idea of what Apple products should be and he's neglecting it.
But that's just my two cents. :cool:
 
Steve Jobs recently said that the Apple TV will remain a "hobby" in 2009. I think it will only get some more software updates although I am hoping for new hardware.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Remain a hobby? When did he say that?
Click to expand...

Bill Fearnley - FTN Midwest: [...] Steve, how are you thinking about Apple TV now? [...] If you look at the digital living room category and you look at the upcoming year of 2009, how do you look at the digital living room opportunity and how it relates to Apple TV?

Steven P. Jobs: Well again, I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009.

http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/37623
 
I'm hoping for an update at Macworld. I'm ready to buy an AppleTV, but I can wait a bit. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have made substantial inroads in the media center arena. I'll keep using my 360 for now, even though it's a pain to drag it from the gaming room to the living room for family movie night. Not to mention that the thing is LOUD.
 
Steve Jobs said:
Well again, I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009.
Click to expand...

The man is a congenital liar, and he rocks for it. The early companies are fading away and experimentation is down? NOW IS THE TIME FOR APPLE TO JUMP IN. Less competition, the ones that are left aren't working as hard... come on! They have awesome DVR patents and the iTunes backbone!

There will be something big (insanely great, I believe is the term) at either MacWorld or WWDC about the Apple TV.
 
I think that the reason you don't see drives and easy integration of some videos via iTunes is the same reason that renting and buying videos is such a different experience from music as well on iTunes - the movie industry is much more concerned about pirating than the music industry. Or, perhaps, better able to control it because there is a lot less content that costs a lot more and is harder to distribute. Anyhow, I think it is the legal hurdles that are the challenge in the video world. Plus, adding a DVD drive to the ATV would make it prohibitively expensive. Apple's business model for the ATV, like the iPod, has you doing your content ripping and management on the Mac/PC.

As for Jobs hating the ATV. I don't think he hates it. He is keeping it around as a hobby - a low-level marketing experiment to keep Apple's finger in a potentially lucrative market. If he really didn't like the ATV, I can tell you right now that it would not be in Apple's product line. I think that having a player in the market allows Apple to have some people smart on the issues there, overcome some legal hurdles on an on-going basis and be postured to take advantage of the market if it opens up or catches fire.

It would be a good idea to convert to SATA to allow larger hard drives though. Perhaps even 3.5" ones - after all it could be the size of a Time Capsule...
 
I can't remember an apple product in that past 10 years that has seen a revision that made it substantially larger. For that reason alone, I hope no one who want's 3.5 inch drives and blu ray is holding their breath.

At best you can expect default drive size bumps, a software update, and possibly a move to 2.5 inch sata to head off potential supply issues.

Until blu ray makes it to an apple computer, I think blu ray is total non-starter for appletv. It's a hobby .. it will get hand me downs .. not new technology.
 
If Apple wants to make the millions and millions of dollars people throw at the cable companies, they will add a DVR and a physical media drive. Can't figure out what's taking them so long.:confused:

Hopefully, we'll see they've come around in early January.
 
If they put in DVR capabilities and also added a slot for a cable card, I think the apple tv would take off...................... I know I would buy a new one in a heart beat.

Don't get me wrong I don't think this will happen. But one never knows.
 
One thing that would make it more useful here is to have an app for MLB-TV (American Baseball). I bring up games on my computer for my Dad to watch, but then I lose the use of my computer for the mean time.

Better yet, how about an SDK for :apple:TV. I haven't jailbroken my iPhone since the App Store opened, and I'd probably end up not patching my :apple:TV if there were 3rd party apps available.

Well....... I guess I still would if I needed to in order to watch .avi files without converting.
 
I sure as hell hope it's updated.
A DVR slot would be amazing.
How about Safari built in "Take 3?" Or would that be derailing the product from what it's made for?
 
rhett7660 said:
If they put in DVR capabilities and also added a slot for a cable card, I think the apple tv would take off...................... I know I would buy a new one in a heart beat.

Don't get me wrong I don't think this will happen. But one never knows.
Click to expand...

You're right - it will not happen. Not at MW09 not ever. Apple has positioned ATV to obtain its content from iTunes and the Internet. They view getting content from Cable/Satellite/OTA as "old world".. and after killing my $70/month satellite subscription - I tend to agree with them. I certainly don't see myself going back to cable-card world any time soon.
 
Adgeman said:
I just got a 40GB Apple Tv for my birthday today. I'm happy with the gift but given the proximity of Macworld in Jan I'm wondering if I'm better off returning it for a refund and then seeing what is announced in early Jan.

I've not heard any rumours; anyone else able to offer advice?
Click to expand...

To answer your question.... return it and wait til Jan. 5th-9th, is it really worth the 20-25 days of Apple TV just to have to potentially turn around and sell it or pay to upgrade your unit?
 
I've decided to take it back tomorrow and get a refund. I want to play with the new toy but I know how annoyed I'd feel if I kept it as is and then Steve announced something new/cool in an update... even if it's just a bit more memory.

Thanks for everyone's comments
 
I just got one and I'm keeping it for a good long time. It could really use a hardware update, but I doubt we'll see that honestly. A fast SATA drive, a faster low-power chipset, and more ram would always be appreciated, but is it necessary?

I'd like to see an Apple DVR, but that would undercut iTunes TV show sales. I'd like to see the :apple:TV have hulu, cbs, abc, nbc, fox, // all major networks' online show broadcasts available direct from its browser without hacks. I'd like to see Safari HD built-in too.

We'll know at macworld.
 
Back in the day, I was hoping Apple would team the ATV with Netflix. They went their own path, although that doesn't preclude an alliance with Netflix. It would be a good business deal for both, I think.

While I think that a DVR capability is probably the killer app that people need to buy ATV, Apple doesn't agree. The DVR capability would let you have a half-way house to ATV Land while still keeping the connection with your old cable/satellite. Apple wants you to cut the cord completely NOW, so that is a big reason why the product hasn't been successful, in my opinion. To go the DVR route, they would also have had to have a larger storage capacity. Perhaps they could have put the cable card as an option, so that people could both cut the cord and not? Oh well, the path not taken.
 
DVR isn't just for cable, folks. The digital switch is coming and there'll be lots of free content over the air in stunning HD. I just don't want to have to buy a Tivo AND an Apple TV. Just let me get one device that does both, they already have the patents. It won't hurt their iTunes store either, you can already watch most of the OTA stuff using Boxee, but the quality of site streaming is nowhere close to OTA quality. It'd make the Apple TV the gateway drug for iTunes' movie rental and purchases plus the non big network programming.
 
If Apple wants to take over the TV world like they took over the MP# and Cell Phone world, they will change the :apple:TV into a multifunction device. Make it the size of the Mac Mini and put a Blu-Ray, a DVR, and Netflix app. They could market it as a device to replace all the other devices on your TV stand.
 
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